I didn’t budge from the apartment until it was time to go to the office. All day long I jumped every time the phone rang. On one occasion nobody spoke at the other end, but I couldn’t be sure it was Arianna. Toward evening it got to the point where I couldn’t stand it anymore—it’s always harder to stand things when evening comes—and I phoned her at home, but there was nobody there. Then I tried Eva’s store. Arianna wasn’t there either. And, no, Eva didn’t know where she could be. She was sorry, she said.

I saw Arianna two evenings later, coming out of a movie theater. I was with Graziano and she was with Livio Stresa, who looked even taller and thinner than usual, in blue jeans and tennis shirt. For a moment I thought about joining them, but I didn’t move. Maybe it was Arianna’s pale face that held me back or her head held too high, I don’t know, maybe it was the fact that they were alone and holding hands, all I know is that instinctively I stopped and stood watching them walk away through the crowd. Arianna turned in my direction before getting in the car, and her big, anxious eyes searched the crowd for a moment.

“But I know her,” Graziano said, by my side. “What an amazing leftover. What do you say? Shall we take a shower and go looking for her?”

I phoned her the next day.

“It’s you,” she said.

“I have to talk to you,” I said.

“I have to talk to you too,” she said.

I went and waited for her at the top of the Spanish Steps, as usual. But this time she didn’t arrive late and didn’t stop to make a tour of the streetlights on the way. This time she came straight toward me. She was wearing dark glasses. She stopped by my side and looked down the steps toward Piazza di Spagna. They were full of people sitting, waiting for the evening wind to start blowing, and the big bunches of azaleas were wilting in the heat. Arianna was silent for a while, holding on tight to the book she had in her arms, but her hand was opening and closing nervously. “Before you say anything, I want you to know I’ve slept with someone else,” she said.